Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Edited by Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro

Explores a range of topics on emotions, and central figures in the history of philosophy

Offers new historical context to contemporary discussions

Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Edited by Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro

Description

This volume offers a much needed shift of focus in the study of emotion in the history of philosophy. Discussion has tended to focus on the moral relevance of emotions, and (except in ancient philosophy) the role of emotions in cognitive life has received little attention. Thirteen new essays investigate the continuities between medieval and early modern thinking about the emotions, and open up a contemporary debate on the relationship between emotions, cognition, and reason, and the way emotions figure in our own cognitive lives. A team of leading philosophers of the medieval, renaissance, and early modern periods explore these ideas from the point of view of four key themes: the situation of emotions within the human mind; the intentionality of emotions and their
role in cognition; emotions and action; the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.

Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Edited by Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro

Table of Contents

List of ContributorsAbbreviations1. Introduction, Martin Pickave and Lisa Shapiro2. Dispassionate Passions, Peter King3. Why is the Sheep Afraid of the Wolf? Medieval Debates on Animal Passions, Dominik Perler4. John Duns Scotus on the Passions of the Will, Ian Drummond5. Intellections and Volitions in Ockham's Nominalism, Claude Pannaccio6. Emotion and Cognition in Later Medieval Philosophy: The Case of Adam Wodeham, Martin Pickave7. Sixteenth-Century Discussions of the Passions of the Will, Simo Knuuttila8. The Philosopher as a Lover: Renaissance Debates on Platonic Eros, Sabrina Ebbersmeyer9. Reasons, Causes, and Inclinations, Paul Hoffman10. Using the Passions, Dennis Des Chene11. How We Experience
the World: Passionate Perception in Descartes and Spinoza, Lisa Shapiro12. Agency and Attention in Malebranche's Theory of Cognition, Deborah Brown13. Spinoza on Passions and Self-Knowledge: The Case of Pride, Lilli Alanen14. Family Trees: Sympathy, Comparison and the Proliferation of the Passions in Hume and his Predecessors, Amy M. SchmitterIndex

Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Edited by Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro

Author Information

Martin Pickavé is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Medieval Studies at University of Toronto. He specializes in later medieval philosophy of mind and metaphysics, and is working on a monograph on medieval theories of the emotions.

Lisa Shapiro is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. She is the author of numerous articles on Descartes, with a specific focus on how his writings on the passions sheds light on his account of human nature, and on writings of early modern women thinkers. She is also the editor and translator of The Correspondence between Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and Rene Descartes. Her current research is focussed on Spinoza, Condillac, and Hume.

Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Edited by Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro

Reviews and Awards

"This excellent volume provides a valuable overview of medieval debates about how to situate the passions within the mind and the role of the passions in cognition.... It is essential reading for anyone interested in the burgeoning field of work on the history of the passions and for contemporary philosophers interested in the connection between emotions and cognition."--Matthew J. Kisner, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews